Een van de deelnemers aan de RTC: Salikin M. Hardjo 1948

This photograph of Salikin M. Hardjo was taken by Particam. The cool thing about black and white photos is how the greyscale is the whole language. The tones make the picture. Looking at the man's suit, with its subtle pinstripes, I think about how clothing can transform someone. Like painting, you can put on a different persona. The image is smooth, slick, and sharply focused. It doesn't hide its process, but it isn't particularly interested in it. I wonder about all the other little photos behind him and what stories they have to tell. There is something so incredibly powerful about a picture because it is a moment stopped. You can hold onto it. Look at it over and over again. Think about the past. I'm reminded of Jeff Wall, the way he composes a photograph so perfectly like a painting. Like Wall, this image has a cinematic quality, like we are viewing a film still. It is a strange way of holding onto the past. The photograph becomes a way of speaking about it.